DEMOCRATISING WATER
Over 20 lakh people in Mumbai have been denied access to legal water supply. Under the banner of Pani Haq Samiti, a people’s campaign for universal water access, we took this battle to the courts and won! In 2014, the Bombay High Court ruled in our favor, ordering the city’s Municipal Corporation to ensure water for all. This led to the city’s first-ever inclusive water policy. Our sustained activism has ensured that 12,000+ families applied for legal water connections, of which over 6,000 have gained access. Despite threats, bureaucratic roadblocks, and powerful opposition, we have expanded this struggle across 75 settlements in 20 administrative wards of Mumbai.
Research
Our research has advocated to democratise water by documenting the state of water and sanitation access in Mumbai’s informal settlements, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when universal access to hygiene was essential to public health. We are also collaborating in initiatives to sustainably manage the city’s water resources by documenting the state of groundwater in Mumbai.
Building people’s collectives
Pani Haq Samiti (Water Rights Committee) is a people’s collective at the forefront of the Right to Water movement in Mumbai since its inception in 2008. It brings together community leaders from informal settlements denied legal water access, along with technical and social science experts in the fields of engineering, health, water and sanitation, law and constitutional values. Over the years, Pani Haq Samiti has engaged various cultural workers; including photographers, film makers, theatre artists and folk musicians to spread the message of universal water and sanitation access as a collective human right.
Advocacy
Our advocacy efforts are rooted in democratic values; pushing not only for legal reform, but also social reform. Going beyond legal advocacy through petitions and public interest litigations, we engage with the Human Rights Commission to extend the benefits of our advocacy work to all people, including the undocumented. Beyond this, we believe that the right to water cannot be achieved through legal means alone, but requires a social transformation. Therefore, we encourage and facilitate public engagement with issues of water through news media, film, art, and public discussions.
Read the PIL here
Historic Bombay High Court Judgement, 2014
Policy reform & implementation
Following our successful advocacy efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Mumbai’s Municipal Corporation invited us to consult on improving its Water for All policy, with the focus to make it more inclusive. The policy was revised in 2022, to remove several caveats that previously denied citizens water. The Municipal Corporation also allotted a 100 crore budget to implement the revised policy.
